The close Welsh links to the stories behind one of man’s ultimate achievements – the conquest of the highest mountain on Earth – are perhaps not immediately apparent.

Yet Welsh mountaineers, scientists, journalists and even hoteliers have all played key roles in the mountain’s history.

And, although he was said to be reluctant to have his name bestowed upon it, the world’s tallest peak still bears the name of a Welshman – with 2015 marking the 150th anniversary of the renaming of the crown of the Himalayas after Sir George Everest.

Born in 1790 in Crickhowell in Powys, Everest joined the East India Company as a teenager, eventually winning promotion to the post of Surveyor-General of India in 1830.

He served in the role until 1843, during which time he was responsible for mapping out vast swathes of the Indian subcontinent.

It was in 1865, however, that his name was immortalised.

His successor in the post, Andrew Scott Waugh, announced he would rename the world’s highest mountain, previously known simply as “Peak XV”, after his eminent forerunner – to Everest’s annoyance.

Controversially named

And naming the 29,029ft mountain “Everest” remains controversial in Nepal and Tibet.

In Tibetan, the peak goes by the name Chomolungma, or Mother Goddess of the Universe. In Nepali, the mountain – which straddles the border between the two – is named Sagarmatha, which translates as Goddess of the Sky.

There have been some calls – albeit relatively muted – for the mountain to lose the moniker Everest and to readopt those names more widely, with some arguments suggesting keeping the name of an imperial British surveyor is an outdated colonial throw-back.

Everest’s birthplace and familial home in the small Powys town is now the Manor Hotel. Then the Manor of Gwernvale, the hotel remains proud of the link, displaying a number of artefacts from Everest expeditions and having named its restaurant after the man himself.

It was in May 1953 that Everest was conquered for the first time. New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa colleague Tenzing Norgay became instant global celebrities, with their exploits capturing the imagination of millions all over the globe.

Straight to the top! Iceland boss Malcolm Walker and his son Richard reached the 23,000ft summit of Everest in 2011 (Image: Jeff Smith)

But the duo had a number of Welshmen to thank for helping them to mountaineering immortality.

And it was in the foothills of Mount Snowdon, where the duo spent much of their time preparing for their history-making quest, staying in the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel.

Hotel owner Christopher Briggs was one of the first people to be told of the successful conquest of Everest, being informed by the Times – whose Welsh journalist Jan Morris was the only reporter to be embedded with the expedition – just after the news was conveyed to the Queen.

The hotel is still run by the same family today, with mementoes of the inaugural conquest on display. Mr Briggs’ grandson Rupert Pullee, who is co-owner alongside brother Nick, said: “(The team) treated Pen-y-Gwryd like home – they got very friendly with my grandfather.

“When Everest was climbed he got a phone call from the editor of the Times. The Queen was notified but we were second or third on the list.”

First attempt

Subsequent reunions of the team also took place at the hotel.

The team’s deputy leader, Charles Evans – who grew up near Llangollen and who went on to become principal of Bangor University – had actually come within a few hundred feet of beating Hillary and Tenzing and etching his own name in the annals of history.

Alongside Tom Bourdillon, Evans made the first attempt to reach the summit just three days before Hillary and Tenzing did so successfully – but had to turn back because of a fault with the oxygen supplies.

Another Welshman in the team was also perhaps the most instrumental team member behind the scenes of the success.

But Griffith Pugh, a scientist originally from Aberystwyth, has been largely written out of the history of the expedition, with some of his efforts at the time not being taken to kindly by many other members of the party, led by John Hunt.

Pugh’s daughter Harriet Tuckey – who admits she did not get on with her father, who died in the mid-1990s – has written a book to try to redress the balance.

Among the crucial measures implemented on the advice of Pugh was an increase in the amount of oxygen provided to the climbers, a device to turn snow into drinking water much more quickly than before – with Pugh being among the first to fully understand the debilitating effect of dehydration – and pioneering methods of acclimatisation.

He also designed everything from the diets followed to the boots worn by those in the team.

Harriet said: “There was just no detail he didn’t get involved in.

“Hillary himself told me that my father made it possible for him to climb Everest.

Welsh links continue through decade

“I started out full of resentment for my father and I ended up admiring him as an amazing, remarkable and highly original scientist and being grateful to him.

“I discovered he was terribly interested in people – he always wanted to know about people. If he was in a Sherpa village he would be thinking about how they built their houses and what he could learn from it.”

Her book, Everest: The First Ascent, was published in 2013.

Not that the Welsh links were concentrated solely around that famous inaugural success.

In 1979, Welshman Tom Whittaker, an amputee, became the first person with a disability to reach the top of the world.

The latest chapter in the story of our links with Mount Everest was written in 2007 when Victoria James became the then-youngest British woman – and first Welsh woman – to reach the summit.

Even George Everest, reluctant to have his name given to the world’s tallest peak, would be proud of what his compatriots have since achieved.